The Prospecting Department Prospecting Department, TPD, Lead Scam Longmont, Colorado
I have been bombarded with emails by this company from several sales associates even after I already purchased an “exclusive” list. I was already a bit hesitant of them but followed through because my company spotted the expense for me.
This was possibly the worst business decision I have made in my career.
After several phone calls over a few days time I realized it was bogus. I lost both time and money from working this list and gained nothing but a headache.
I was going to cut my losses and write this experience up as a lesson learned, but just yesterday I received another email proposing the same list, so I decided to head warning to everyone else being solicited by them.
These leads were supposed to be self reported by the consumer & scrubbed for DNC & our existing account holders. THEY WERE NOT!!!
After sending the list to my compliance department, they informed me that 30% of the list came back as already having some sort of account with us. One of them happened to be my own client whom I just obtained a month prior and who claims to have never filled out any type of mailer or spoken to any one regarding moving his account besides for myself. A majority of these individuals had no knowledge of why I was contacting them, did not have the accounts described, nor did they have an interest in speaking to anyone regarding their accounts.
They did offer me replacements upon purchase in case of any bad information I encountered, but why would I waste more of my time with leads that were incorrect the first time around?
All in all this list was just garbage, filled with disconnects, faxes, wrong numbers, and mostly lies.
I could have found better prospects by pulling public real estate and tax records for free.
I would strongly suggest doing your homework before purchasing leads from this company. There is hardly any information available about them, & they are not registered with the BBB. I have bought leads in the past, some good, some bad, and these were by far the worst!!
2 Updates & Rebuttals
TRobbins
Langhorn,Pennsylvania,
United States of America
Customer Service
#3Consumer Suggestion
Mon, April 04, 2011
I agree that the leads were decent in value. However, I would recommend not dealing with one of the managers that is listed on the website. Her name is Shawna Sams and she could not be a more rude and indecent person to talk to. I called with questions about my leads, and it turned into a yelling match about who's turn it was to talk. I then hit mute on my phone, so I could settle down. She then started calling me all sort of names, I guess thinking I hung up. Whatever happened to the customer being right? I assure you that I don't do the sort of indecencies that she accused me of when I had the phone on mute; I am a married man.
When I reorder leads I will be calling someone else in the company and she will not get my business again. Instead of a pissing war, I just wanted a simple answer about if some of the leads would be replaceable. She started accusing me of cutting her off, and who's turn it was to talk. I will not deal with this manager again, and next time, someone else will get my business.
Jacksonville
jacksonville,Florida,
United States of America
I rec'd a good list
#3Consumer Comment
Tue, March 22, 2011
I was approached by my Sales Rep with The Prospecting Department yesterday afternoon and asked to share my experience with the firm. From what I understand they are currently interviewing their existing clients.
My Experience was quite different. I also rec'd several emails from TPD before purchasing a list and I was also hesitant. I have been in the business for over 24 years and have no need for a list, but my nephew has recently joined our team. I thought it may be a good opportunity for him to get his feet wet.
We called through the list from head to toe. Not several phone calls over a few days, but we truly worked this list, as it was my money that paid for it not the money of my firm. We scrubbed the list internally and lost about 10% which was expected as we hold quite a bit of the market share since the merge.
The 10% was replaced in a timely fashion as promised by my sales rep.
These individuals were not waiting on the other line for our call by any means. None of the consumers were "lay downs". We knew this as we paid less than $.50 per lead. The list did meet the criteria for the most part. 90% of the retirees were actually retired and did have assets that were still in the position as described by TPD.
I purchased a 2nd list as well. People who had moved into the area, but had advisors still out of state. This was also a good list, again, nobody said "I'm so glad you called I was just writing you a check", but the information was accurate. This is really all you can ask for when purchasing a list.
When we finished the first list we lost 10% on the internal scrub, we also turned in about 3% that was bogus information. The retiree list was our favorite as we uncovered several accounts that were valued over 1m. We acquired one of these accounts and still have the other in the works. My nephew hit a couple singles and independently took on his first 2 accounts that met the min. as described by my sales rep (these are the first accounts that were not given to him by our team)
By the time we finished the 2nd list were were only able to acquire 1 account on the first pass through. This acct also met the min as described by my sales rep, and my nephew is now handling family referrals from this individual.
All in all this was a good list we brought on 4 new accounts (one of which was over 1m). My nephew has built up his confidence and I finally after 24 years in the business have found a good lead list.
I have spent thousands on lists in my years, Testing, Trying, Exploring. I am defending this firm not only because I was asked to share my experience, but because I want to be able to purchase listings from them in the future.
All Business opportunities are worth being explored. It was a small investment for a good return. I understand not all lists can be good, but not all lists are bad either.